Evans will meet Germany’s Marc Zweibler, who defeated Evans in the semi-finals of the Irish Championships in Lisburn last December, and is ranked 23 places higher in the world rankings.
All the top seeds in the men’s singles Olympic badminton tournament received first round byes in Saturday’s draw in Beijing but second seed Lee Chong Wei was handed a tricky second round encounter.
The Malaysian faces Singapore’s Ronald Susilo, the man who famously beat hot favourite and world number one Lin Dan of China in the opening round at the Athens Games four years ago.
Lin’s second round opponent in Beijing will be Hong Kong’s unseeded Ng Wei. Titleholder Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, seeded joint fifth after slipping down the rankings, meets Malaysia’s Wong Choong Hann.
There were first round byes too in the women’s singles where China’s Zhang Ning bids to retain the title she won in Athens. She is seeded second behind world number one Xie Xingfang.
China won three of the five gold medals on offer in Athens and hope to at least match that feat on home territory. The badminton tournament runs from Aug 9-17.